I arrived early at the Triple Door but due to the high level of enthusiasm for the BoDeans, I had to wait to take my seat in the only space left available, an upstairs private lounge. The view turned out to be great, however, and allowed my under-the-weather self to enjoy my 4 glasses of water, 3 cups of tea and the highly recommended fragrant duck, all in preparation for the energy that I expected to follow. Still, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the wall of sound I met when I descended down to the stage for some photos. The energy was impressive, especially for an event at the Triple Door, which can sometimes dampen a band's energy with its spaced out seating and dining proceedings. Needing no opener, the BoDeans took the stage efficiently and opened with the strumming guitar and vocals of Sam Llanas crooning "Pretty Ghost." I've been struggling to describe his voice and I guess the best description would be a slightly nasal, slightly country-tinged classic rock voice that is probably half of the reason for the overall appeal of the BoDeans. They followed up their opener by adding the vocals of Kurt Neumann on "Idaho," which features a call and response between the two singers and highlights the great degree to which the members are intuitively in-sync with one another.
The BoDeans have a well put-together, clean sound that as a fan (though not yet a true connoisseur) of roots rock I can appreciate. When they announced, "Let's go down to Texas for the Texas Ride Song," I couldn't help but smile and repress the urge to stamp my foot along with the rest of the crowd as Bukka Allen took center stage to play a mean, surprisingly well-suited accordion. The boys drew even further cheers for their performance as they formed a line to stoop-walk in unison to the front of the stage. They continued their energy with the 50's sounding "Good Work," including some straight keys and drums and a brief insertion of the old TV-show Batman lick. As Llanas noted, "This is rock 'n roll folks." The BoDeans continued to engage the crowd, requesting our help for the sing-a-long parts of "Still the Night," which reminds me for some reason of the Proclaimers "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"- perhaps it was the march tempo?
The BoDeans continued to play a mix of several older and newer tunes along their familiar themes of love and life. Though I found some of the lyrics slightly odd—"Your mouth a perfect weapon"—they didn't seem to take much away from the overall performance, which was more about the energy and enthusiasm of both performers (often circling each other stage center) and audience than some of the specific words or notes. At times reminding me of Simon and Garfunkel, America (and at one point I jotted a note to myself that Eddie Veder might have taken a few vocal stylings from Llanas) the BoDeans embody that classic American (read: has someone been watching the Olympics?) sound. And what's more classic than singing about loneliness and the subsequent drink?
Well the feeling's coming on again
It's kickin' and it's screaming deep inside me
And I'm so tired of fighting with my self
You're not here, I'm nothing, I'm alone
So I pour another drink and take a hit
And I wonder where the smoke goes
And I'm feeling more and more like less and less
As I curse to tell of all along these lines
Because words are all we have to much time
So far, far away from my heart
Far, far away from my heart
Following "Far, Far Away From My Heart" Neumann conveyed a somewhat slow story ("She said, 'Hey you' and I said, 'Hey what,'" etc. ) about the girl next door whose naked window-dancing inspired the lyrics for "Lucille" before launching into the tune. Apart from this short break, however, the BoDeans never really lost pace with the crowd and their second to last song of the regular set, "Fade Away" succeeded in bringing a good portion of the crowd to their feet (again, quite a notable feat that I had yet to witness at the laid-back Triple Door). They then launched into their most publicly recognized, Party of Five theme song hit "Closer to Free."
The following encore break was short and the two front men then took advantage of the venue, requesting, "Three minutes of silence" to play an unplugged number. Overall, I found the evening to be up-tempo and enjoyable although I would guess that the BoDeans would be even better experienced outdoors on a lawn somewhere. Oh, and one final note to the middle aged man in the pink shirt dead front center who clapped through the entire performance: I hope I too will be rockin' like you twenty years from now.
